On May 5th, 1,107 KSC seniors accepted at least 1,196 degrees, making theirs the largest class in the College’s 103-year history. And the ceremony on Fiske Quad was also the greenest: KSC worked with the company Balfour to provide caps & gowns made of 100% post-consumer recycled plastic bottles. It takes about 23 bottles to make one gown, and that’s 23 removed from the tens of millions that end up in U.S. landfills every day. The graduates could keep their gowns, or return them so the material can be used to make artificial turf.
During Commencement, Mary Ann Kristiansen, local entrepreneur, artisan, and community-builder, received the Granite State Award, and Janet Cohen, humanitarian, researcher, and advocate for the Holocaust and related issues of genocide, tolerance, and diversity, was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. Both women spoke during the ceremony.